"Happy," originally produced for the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack, has topped charts in more than 15 countries. The song is also featured in a 24-hour music video. The video features celebrity cameos from Magic Johnson, Steve Carell and Jamie Foxx, among others. "Happy" received an Oscar nomination for best original song.

About Pharrell

Pharrell Williams is a four-time Grammy-winning hip-hop artist and producer. He is part of the songwriting duo The Neptunes, as well as the rock group N*E*R*D. He has produced many No. 1 hits for superstars including Snoop Dogg, Justin Timberlake, Mariah Carey and Jay-Z.

Pharrell rose to fame in 2001 for producing Britney Spears' hit song "I'm a Slave 4 U," which topped billboards worldwide. In 2006, he released his debut solo album In My Mind. In January, he won four of seven Grammy nominations for Daft Punk's "Get Lucky," including Record of the Year and Producer of the Year.

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Transcript

GUY RAZ, HOST:

It's the TED Radio Hour from NPR. I'm Guy Raz. And on the show today, the one thing we can pretty much all agree we want - happiness.

DAN GILBERT: Well, of course.

RAZ: This is Dan Gilbert, happiness expert.

GILBERT: If you write a book with the word happiness in the title, you get one question over and over.

RAZ: And the question he gets?

GILBERT: Hey, Doc, what's the secret of happiness?

RAZ: Yeah. So what is it?

GILBERT: Well, the first thing is rather than answering the question, let's just think about it for a moment. Is there really a possibility, A, that it's a secret and only I know it and you don't, and, B, that it's a secret at all?

RAZ: Sadly, this is true because if there is one thing we learned from working on today's show it's that there is no secret to happiness. But there are plenty of ideas about it, all of which we'll explore this hour - ideas from science, design, philosophy. And the thing is, a lot of these ideas are surprisingly simple.

GILBERT: But, you know, when people ask about secret of happiness and you tell them, well, take more time in your social relationships, worry less about things and more about experiences, they kind of nod and look at you and say, yeah, but what about the secret? Because the secret of happiness is like the secret of dieting, there's no secret.

(PHONE RINGING)

RAZ: Pharrell, are you there?

PHARRELL WILLIAMS: Yes, sir.

RAZ: So this is your song, man. I mean, "Happy" - this is climbing the charts around the world. So I'm thinking, like, you must have the secret.

WILLIAMS: OK.

RAZ: I mean, no, seriously.

WILLIAMS: Well, you know what? Look, look. I'm not a guy that's walking around and smiling every day. I have - we all have our ups and downs and our lefts and our rights and our diagonal, you know. But really, you know, a much more simple way to look at it is to remember that you deserve to be happy. It's a natural born right.

RAZ: Fair enough. All right. Pharrell, we're going to listen to the rest of the show, and I will meet you on the other side. OK?

WILLIAMS: Yes, sir.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HAPPY")

RAZ: And by the way, you have to check out the video to this song. It will literally make you happy. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.